[BarneyRubble]

I use 25/25/25/25, but it really depends on what your goal is. I play as the GM and I don't micromanage. That said, I haven't tested this in 2 or 3 versions and may not have a clue what I'm talking about.

I used to get disheartened when a 34 year old all-star suddenly becomes a scrub in the off season (while he's celebrating the holidays with his family). I had this issue even when using 40/30/20/10. So I changed to 25/25/25/25 about the time OOTP implemented scouting changes and GM tendencies. What 25/25/25/25 does is minimize the impact of scouting when dealing with non-prospects (players with history). They can be a crap shoot, especially veterans. Depending on the Managers tendencies, a veteran will stay in the line-up longer. Track record is important.

I assume that, when scouting younger, international and draft players, the scout uses ratings because there are no stats (or very little). I also assume that OOTP prorates it's evaluation based on quantity of the stats (playing time). I also assume 'current year' is in fact 'current year' and if it's opening day, then '2 years ago' should be relevant and current year gets very little weight (no stats). I assume that, if an aging player has a monster season, followed by an injury filled season, then '2 years ago' matters. I assume that, at the end of a season, '2 years ago' has less weight than it had on opening day because current year is 'fulfilled'.

These are all assumptions on my part, as OOTP does not explain how the mechanics work. As for results, I haven't used anything other than 25/25/25/25 in quite a while. One reason for this is because it's very realistic. I use default trade settings. I used to get hung up on whether trades were realistic, then some extremely bad real life trades came into mind and I stopped worrying about it. I dominated the game when scouting was mostly ratings based, but I find it much more challenging with these settings. I once traded away a 26 year old, left handed pitcher and I thought I was fleecing the AI. He became a Cy Young winner. It was my Jake Arrieta moment. Sometimes one can rip off the AI, but most of the time, it's beneficial to both teams. I always find a reason why a team will part with a player. I've traded for players that flourished and I've had them bomb out. I've traded players because of money, chemistry or I have a better option. I take what I can get because I have no use for them. An expansion team's best player came in a trade with NY. Guess what, NY didn't need him. While I don't ignore them, I try not to get hung up on 'ratings' when trading. Specifically, OVR/POT.

What I've 'noticed' (I don't know this for sure) is that 'ratings' is the key. If you want a game where your scout can report to you that he saw your starting SS in the grocery store the other day and he can no longer field or hit, then crank up ratings as high as it will go (100/0/0/0), hire the best scouts and set you scouting budget as high as you can afford.

If I had two questions, I would ask...

1) When does 'current season' start?

2) The day 'current season' starts (using 25/25/25/25), is AI evaluation effectively 50/0/25/25, 34/0/33/33 or something different?

The answers to these questions really do matter.